WSL Preview: Part 1
Starting next month, we will be covering the Women’s Super League, the top division of women’s football in England.
Let’s begin with a minor history lesson. The Women’s Soccer League (hereafter referred to as WSL) is a relatively new league, taking over from the The FA Women’s Premier League National Division as Division 1 in 2010. The allocation of clubs into this division was a divisive process which awarded “licenses” to 8 clubs to operate in a standalone league with no promotion or relegation from 2010 until the 2014 season. There were sixteen applicants: Arsenal, Barnet, Birmingham City, Bristol Academy, Chelsea, Colchester United, Doncaster Rovers Belles, Everton, Leeds Carnegie, Leicester City, Lincoln City, Liverpool, Millwall Lionesses, Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest and Sunderland. Leeds Carnegie (a college side) withdrew their application and Blackburn Rovers and Watford (who were D1 sides before WSL) declined to apply. The teams in bold are present in this year’s WSL.
In 2014, promotion and relegation arrived, albeit only between the newly named WSL 1 and WSL 2, and not the amateur and semi pro teams below.
WSL 2 finally connected with the lower leagues in 2018, with a promotion playoff between the winners of the North and South divisions of the Women’s Premier League (now, more rationally, the National League) winning a WSL 2 spot.
We will be covering both the WSL and the Championship (as the WSL2 became), stay tuned for a Championship preview.
In the mean time, here is part one of our WSL preview.
Arsenal play at Borehamwood in Hertfordshire, 13 miles northwest of the club’s main stadium. The Gunners finished second last season and thus are competing in the Champions League. They are amongst the most storied clubs in the league, with 14 FA Cup wins and 3 WSL titles as well as 5 Conti Cup wins.
Aston Villa play in Walsall, 10 miles northwest of the club’s main stadium and definitively outside their home city of Birmingham. They won the second division Women’s Championship in 2019 and this is their only trophy.
Brighton and Hove Albion play 21 miles north of their main stadium, in Crawley. The Seagulls are managed by England legend Hope Powell but are potless in their history.
Chelsea have Hall of Famer Emma Hayes as the manager and they are the defending champions. They play at Kingsmeadow. The stadium in Kingston-upon-Thames is 8 miles south of the club’s main stadium and culturally closer to Wimbledon (of the tennis championship) than London. The stadium also staged the arrival/comeback of AFC Wimbledon as a phoenix club. As such, it is suffused with non-league history. They are five-times league champions, two-time Conti Cup winners and 4 time FA Cup winners.
Everton are based at Walton Hall Park, in neighboring Walton. They have won the Championship twice, which is a sign of a yo-yo club but enjoyed periods in the WSL in between.
Leicester City play at the club’s main stadium, King Power Stadium on the banks of the River Soar. They are the only representative of the East Midlands in the league, with local rivals Nottingham Forest, Notts County and Derby County all playing in the National League (the “non-league” or semi-pro tiers which we will spotlight through their season) or lower. They were promoted as Championship winners in 2021.
Keep an eye out for part two of our preview, right here.
